Heavy Music Awards add 27 more judges

Just to note that we’re still awaiting our invitation for the judging panel ;)

A total of 80 heavyweights including producers, label executives, artist management and journalists from the rock and metal industry have now signed up as judges of the newly launched Heavy Music Awards (HMAs).

This week 27 new names – including representatives of Kerrang! Radio, Raw Power Management, Eagle Rock and Orange Amps joined the HMAs and will cast votes to decide the finalists across the 11 categories.

A public vote will decide the winners of the Heavy Music Awards, which takes place in London on August 24. Following the selection of finalists by the judges, public voting will open on May 22 across all categories including Best Album, Best UK Band, Best International Band and Best Festival.

Martijn Swier, owner of Endless Music and perhaps best-known as manager of Within Temptation, said:

To sit alongside people who I have known and respected for a long time and judge people… What could possibly be better?

Achal Dhillon, founder of label Killing Moon and a hugely respected tastemaker, is also board with the HMAs. He said:

There are far too many award ceremonies that year-on-year seem to fall on the wrong side of objectivity. Killing Moon has always championed and invested great and new music regardless of its source or the stats surrounding the artists, and this is doubly true for heavier artists such as Mantra, Verses, Carnival Kids, Fizzy Blood and more. We greatly welcome the introduction of the Heavy Music Awards and it’s aim to provide a democratic standard for other music awards to follow.

Andy Pritchard, from organisers The Heavy Group, described the HMAs as “a significant endorsement of the strength of the heavy music scene in 2017.” He added:

We have once again been blown away by the industry’s support for the HMAs, with another group of genuine heavyweights becoming a part of the programme, we are enormously excited to see who makes the shortlists when the votes come back.

But before that, we are building towards a number of very exciting announcements in the coming weeks which will underline our intention to create an event of which the heavy music community can be immensely proud for many years to come.